A Jesus girl, railroad wife, homeschool mom, avid book reader, enjoy's coffee, country life, walking, hiking, and yoga. Doing my best to make the most of life by following God, encouraging others, and enjoying every minute of it!! So follow me along as I blog about life as a mom, my faith, and sharing books. Proverbs 3:5~Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Today we celebrate 10 years of marriage! We were married in a cute little church in Minnesota with just our immediate family, nice small and simple. Then he left the next day to start our new adventures in Texas, and I joined shortly after. The journey hasn't always been smooth, but I wouldn't change a thing, we have grown together and everything we have been through has made us closer. There was a time we almost went separate ways, but God held us together and I am so very, very thankful we didn't quit! We have a wonderful marriage and I am one blessed lady! I married this man 10 years ago because of how much he adores me, he's a hunk, makes me laugh, and because I love him to the moon and back and then some! Today, I am more in love with him than ever! Marrying him was one of the best things I have done! Together is the best place to be and yes I sure do feel with him by my side I can conquer anything!!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

I finished reading Jesus+Nothing=Everything by
Tullian Tchividjian, wow! This book has helped me see the Gospel in a whole new
way!!! God sized freedom = amazing grace!! It is finished, so relax and
rejoice!! Jesus+Nothing=Everything; Everything-Jesus=Nothing! To live is Christ;
to die is gain~Philippians 1:21 God loves us, nothing we can do to
change that, we have a God-centered core!

Seeing this for first time ...Colossians 3:4 When
Christ WHO is your Life (not part of your life)… When you have Christ through
salvation, you are like Jesus!! So you will want to do as Jesus would do, we
will no longer have desire to sin, but we will, because we are not perfect, but
one day will be, because of Jesus! God loves us and wants nothing but to have
us and Jesus made the way for that. All we need to do is have a relationship
and follow Jesus! I grew up thinking God was a God who punished and wasn’t full
of grace. Grace (and truth) is what is preached at our church and something
that has taken me some time to really grasp. We have such an amazing
God!!! Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

”We need to do more than sing
"Amazing Grace. We need to be repeatedly amazed by grace.” ~ R.C. Sproul

Here
are some of my notes, quotes, and Bible scripture from the book….

Jesus+Nothing=Everything
“He is the rock for which you are longing, he is the One who alone is able to
give you the sense that all is well. And as you abandon your hop in the mirage
rocks of this fallen world, and begin to hunger for the true rock, He will
reach out, and place you on solid ground.”

“-because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be
weak

-because Jesus was for me, I was free to lose

- because Jesus was someone, I was free to be no one

-because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be
ordinary

-because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to
fail.”

Colossians
1:15-20 The Son
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For
in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have
been created through him and for him.He is before all things,
and in
him ALL things hold together.And he is the head of the
body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so
that in everything he might have the supremacy.For God was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him
to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross…Jesusplusnothing=everything

Psalm
16:11 In your
presence there is fullness of JOY, at your right hand are pleasures forever
more.

John
1:16Out of his fullness we have all
received grace in place of grace already given.

“For freedom Christ has set us free and that must
include letting go of the burden of having to become a better you.”

“The gospel of amazing grace gets us in, keeps us
in, and will eventually get us to the finish line. It’s all of grace!”

“It’s the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone
can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from
being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do
good flaws from what’s already been done. So again, while the law directs us,
only the gospel can drive us.”

“The law is like a set of railroad tracks. The
tracks provide us power for the train but the train must stay on the tracks in
order to function. The law never gives any power to do what it commands. Only
the gospel has power, as it were, to move the train.”

Sinclair Ferguson… “The
evangelical orientation is inward and subjective. We are far better at looking
inward than we are at looking outward. Instead we need to expand our energies
admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ.”

Romans
8:1 There is
therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.“The irony, of course is that it’s only when
we stop obsessing over our own need to be holy and focus instead on the beauty
of Christ’s holiness that we can actually become more holy! Not to mention that
we also start to become a lot easier to live with.”

“It’s so important to understand that Christianity
is not first about our getting better, our obedience, our behavior and our
daily victory over remaining sin, as important as all these are. It’s first
about JESUS! It’s about his person and substitutionary work-his incarnation,
life, death, resurrection, ascension, session and promised return. We have
justified and sanctified, by grace alone through faith alone in the finished
work of Christ alone.”

“The gospel’s secret of maturity is this…we become
more spiritually mature when we focus less on what we need to do for God and
focus more on all that God has already done for us.”

“We perform better in life as we grow in
understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance
for us, not on our own performance for him. We mature when we focus less on our
performance for Jesus and more on Jesus’s performance for us….Nothing in my
hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

Friday, December 26, 2014

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!! We were definitely blessed beyond measure, even on the tough days. We enjoyed a nice family Christmas and were thankful the hubby was home. My kids are spoiled by their grandparents and our family, might have to do with them having to live so far from them. So today we clean up the aftermath of Christmas presents and enjoy the last few days of 2014!! I definitely have lots of blessings to count this year and it really has been a very amazing year! What are you most thankful for this year? I am thankful for my health, warm home and plenty of food. I am thankful for my husband's job, though at times as it can be hard to deal with him being gone so much and on-call all the time, but it allows us to provide for our family, for me to stay home and take care of our family and school our children. Thankful for our family and friends both far and near, our church family, and most importantly my husband and our two little blessings who call me mom!! I would not be as blessed or have a heart full of joy if it wasn't for my salvation through our savior, Jesus Christ! (So if you don't know Him, you need to know Him, more than you realize. I tell ya it is life changing people!! Truly will rock your world!!)

For 2015, I want to shine His light through my life even more and being able to do it as family. Which is not always easy with two little kids, who some days want to do their own thing, and hey I can understand that, I am just as guilty of being selfish. But I truly believe you train them up in the way they will go, they will not depart, also it is biblical Proverbs 22:6. I don't know what God has in store, but I do know it will be wonderful, because it is always good with God. He has placed a few things on my heart, one of them I am not sure yet what it will entail, and the other is to be more intentional of my time with my family and friends!!! Keep my heart and mind focused on things above (not become distracted or too OCD), to trust God even in the midst of chaos, so that I am at peace in ALL things (and honestly some-days I like to run away to Target or something...yes I miss shopping at Target, for those that do not live here the closest one is over an hour away.) To be bold in my faith and have confidence which solely comes from God. This is the quote to which I want to live by:

"Of all the things you do in life, in the end, loving God and investing in the lives you love will be the only things that matter."

God tells us to love ALL people, so that will be a big undertaking, but if you start within the walls of your own home and work out, I believe it can be done, especially when you let God lead!!

Here are some snapshots of this week. We started the week enjoying a lovely Christmas worship. Put together a gingerbread house, and hey it actually turned out cute, but never like the box picture! We had a couple friends over for a little Happy Birthday Jesus cupcake party! Enjoyed more Christmas movies, light seeing, and watching the kids unwrap Christmas with finishing our advent count-down and opening of presents.

Mary taught us that the
ordinary, as well as the extraordinary, are to be embraced as "unto the
Lord" and as "from the Lord." This should teach us to say, with Mary,
"Yes, Lord. Anything. Everything. Whatever you think is best for me." http://joyfilleddays.com/marys-secret-for-peace/

I
got to enjoy the ins and outs and ups and downs of their everyday lives. My
husband and I nourished them, nurtured them, and watched them grow. We didn’t
have to send them off so that someone else got to enjoy them—or worse, not
enjoy them. Forget about academics and socialization and all that stuff. http://simplehomeschool.net/enjoying-them/

I
got to enjoy the ins and outs and ups and downs of their every day
lives. My husband and I nourished them, nurtured them, and watched them
grow. We didn’t have to send them off so that someone else got to enjoy
them—or worse, not enjoy them. Forget about academics and socialization
and all that stuff. - See more at:
http://simplehomeschool.net/enjoying-them/#sthash.9izZz32X.Hpz9N4v4.dpuf

Prayer Beads~Reminder To Pray

A Journey For Life

A Railroad wife and homeschooling stay at home mom to two children! We are Raising Arrows and enjoying this journey of faith! I have a slight obsession with books. I'm Minnesota raised, lived in Texas and Kentucky, Tennessee is home! I started this blog to keep long distance family/friends up-to-date on birth of our first child and since then it has become much more. Hubby is a Railroad Engineer. #journeyofFAITH